Army close to taking Al Bab, says Turkey
ANKARA/BEIRUT — Turkey’s military said on Friday it was close to taking Syria’s Al Bab from Daesh, but a war monitor said the militants still controlled 90 per cent of the town itself and that shelling and air strikes had killed dozens of civilians in recent days.
Al Bab, a Daesh stronghold 30km from the Turkish border, has been a prime target since Turkey launched an incursion last August to push the militants from its frontier and prevent gains by a Kurdish militia also fighting them.
Taking control of the town would deepen Turkish influence in an area of Syria where it has already effectively created a buffer zone and allow Turkish forces to press on towards Raqqa, Daesh’s de facto capital in Syria.
“The operation to gain complete control of the Al Bab region has neared its end and the resistance of the Daesh terror group has largely been broken,” the Turkish military statement said.
However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britishbased organisation that monitors the war using a network of contacts, said Turkey’s “Euphrates Shield” forces had not made much progress.
Daesh still controls 90 per cent of Al Bab town itself and Turkish shelling and air strikes had killed 45 civilians, including 18 children, during the past 48 hours, the Observatory said.
Turkish officials have repeatedly said that the Al Bab operation was taking longer than anticipated because of numbers of civilians still trapped in the town and the care being taken not to harm them.
It dropped leaflets on the town as long ago as December urging civilians to seek shelter.
Turkey believes a string of Daesh gun and bomb attacks, including a mass shooting at an Istanbul nightclub on New Year’s Eve, were planned from Al Bab and Raqqa, and has said clearing the town of militants is a national security priority.
The military statement came as US marine corps general and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Joseph Dunford visited the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, used by the US-led coalition in the fight against Daesh.